Davis Warren: ‘Standard hasn’t changed’ after Michigan loss to Texas
Michigan Wolverines quarterback Davis Warren said the reigning national championship team’s “standard hasn’t changed” after losing 31-12 to Texas.
I was walking through a sea of football fans coming out of the Big House.
Texas had just demolished Michigan football, 31-12, and I was headed to the interview room late Saturday afternoon.
“We are still national champions,” one Michigan fan said.
About 20 feet farther, I heard it again from somebody else: “Still national champions.”
Indeed.
You can’t take last season away from this program, or even this fanbase. And several fans were clinging to that natty, as almost an emotional safety blanket to deal with this eye-opening loss.
But this is a new chapter.
Heck, it’s actually a new book — a completely new vibe and experience — and you could see it on the faces of the players in the interview room.
Davis Warren, the Michigan quarterback, sat at a table with face black smeared under his eyes, which only seemed to magnify the moment.
“It falls on me to be better, to play better,” Warren said. “It sucks because you come into this game and there’s a lot on the line. You want to get a win, and so got to take a long, hard look in the mirror at what type of team we want to be, who we want to be.”
When I watched this game, I thought: Oh boy, Michigan still has to play three ranked teams: Ohio State, USC and Oregon. At this moment, it seems far more likely that the Wolverines could be looking at a four-loss season than getting back to the College Football Playoff.
Even with a 12-team CFP.
But the players had a different take.
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They acted as if Texas didn’t win this game — they said Michigan lost it by making too many mistakes.
“All execution by us,” Warren said. “I didn’t do enough. I shot us in the foot too many times. And you know, we didn’t do enough offensively. They’re good football team. They played well today, but we shot ourselves in the foot and let them win that football game. If we do some things differently, I do some things differently, that’s a closer game in the fourth quarter.”
OK, yes.
Woulda been closer. Probably.
This is how an athlete must think: We can beat anybody!
But it was 31-3 at one point in this game.
That’s not Michigan giving it away.
It’s Texas kicking the crap out of the Wolverines.
To be clear, when Warren said that, he wasn’t disrespecting anybody. It was just his honest view.
But I saw something different than he did, different from the rest of these players. It was clear to me from the second possession that Texas had the better team. Significantly better. It was just a matter of how badly Texas was gonna beat the Wolverines.
“We let them off too easy,” Warren said. “It’s a really crappy feeling, because I know that this room, this offense, this team, has what it takes to win that football game, and we didn’t do it. So just a lot of reflection, a lot of things we need to work on. A lot of things I need to work on.”
I agree with him there.
This team has a whole bunch to work on.
The lack of fundamentals and first-day-of-practice-level mistakes were concerning.
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So many problems to fix
Let’s start with the turnovers.
Warren had a pair of interceptions and tight end Colston Loveland had a fumble in the open field.
“I think the turnovers are easy to fix,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “The first pick was a tipped pass. The second one was a communication in the route concept. … And then the fumble was, you know, Colston will say, he just didn’t tuck it away fast enough. And those are three things, if you don’t have, you’re in a different ballgame, but they happened, and they did a good job capitalizing off of them.”
Not tucking the ball? Again, that’s a first-day-of-practice-type fundamental.
But that’s only the start.
Michigan will have to improve its pass defense, starting with doing a better job of getting to the quarterback.
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers dropped back 36 times, and the Wolverines were unable to sack him once. He moved up in the pocket, bought time and threw for 246 yards and three touchdowns.
That’s not all. Michigan has to improve its run defense, too.
Texas ran for 143 yards, gaining 4.5 yards per carry.
“For us on defense, it’s tackling,” Moore said. “We got to make sure we wrap up because they had 135 yards after contact. So for us, those little things, you fix those, you put yourself in a better position, but you can’t do that against a good team.”
Call me crazy, but “wrapping up” and “tackling” are not little things.
It’s a foundational thing.
It’s a first-day-of-practice-type thing.
And it’s beyond concerning that Michigan struggled to tackle.
Wait, there’s more to fix
Michigan did have some positive plays on offense.
But not enough in a row.
Which was another problem.
The Wolverines converted just three of 12 third-down opportunities.
“If you can’t convert on third down, you can’t move down the field, and can’t sustain drives and score points,” Warren said. “And then you can’t give our defense time to come off the field and rest. So it falls on me as a quarterback to keep us moving on those third downs.”
But again, it goes back to fundamentals.
Michigan’s receivers have to run better routes, hold onto the ball and capitalize when big plays are there.
Bad routes and dropped passes?
Again, these are foundational problems.
“We need to be better,” Warren said. “Just taking what the defense gives me, and then the opportunity presents itself down the field, making the throw. They gave us some opportunities.”
There is one other significant element to this loss: The emotional side.
Coming off a national championship, after winning 23 straight games at home, the Wolverines are in a new spot.
Dealing with a loss.
“Gonna take resolve,” Moore said.
Moore took some solace in how Michigan finished the game.
Texas scored just one touchdown in the second half — but I feel the Longhorns just put it on cruise control.
And Moore took some solace in how Michigan scored late.
“That gives you some sign that there’s resolve there,” Moore said. “My message to them was we got to do it together. We can’t finger-point. And you find out who you are as a team when adversity strikes.”
Yes, this is adversity, a new kind of adversity for this program. It’s clear the national champions have fallen off the mountain top. Yes, they have that natty. But that’s done. Just paint on a stadium. A memory.
If they want to start climbing again, they’ve got a whole lot of work to do.
And it starts with the fundamentals.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.
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Publish date : 2024-09-07 23:07:00
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